As more and more US cities announce curfews in an attempt to regain control of their citizenry, and following his reported rage-filled call with “weak” governors, NBC News reports that President Donald Trump is considering invoking a 213-year-old federal law that would allow him to deploy active-duty U.S. troops in an effort to control the riots spreading across the nation faster than COVID.
“You have to dominate,” Trump said Monday in a video conference with governors and law enforcement.
“If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”
According to four persons familiar with the internal White House discussions, NBC News says Trump has warmed to the idea of using the Insurrection Act, adopted in 1807, which was last invoked during the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.
At a briefing with reporters Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany left open the possibility that the president could invoke the act.
“The Insurrection Act, it’s one of the tools available, whether the president decides to pursue that, that’s his prerogative.”
Critically, while governors can ask for federal assistance (sending active-duty troops to deal with civil unrest) and more often prefer to manage with National Guard forces as a repellent (though prohibited from carrying out law enforcement duties on US soil), the president could invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops without a request from a governor.
Those troops would be allowed to conduct law enforcement missions.
To invoke the act, NBC News says that Trump would first have to issue a proclamation to “immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time,” according to the law.
Senator Tom Cotton tweeted earlier:
“Anarchy, rioting, and looting needs to end tonight. If local law enforcement is overwhelmed and needs backup, let’s see how tough these Antifa terrorists are when they’re facing off with the 101st Airborne Division. We need to have zero tolerance for this destruction. “
And reportedly urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act “if necessary” so U.S. troops can “support our local law enforcement and ensure that this violence ends tonight.”
Of course, while the state of the nation may require such a move by the president, we can only imagine the ‘Resistance’ response as Trump moves in the “Hitlerian” direction “they” had warned the nation of, and one step closer to martial law (and tyrannical lockdowns not based on shitty epidemiologist models of virus spread and aging bureaucrats).